And today, continuing our study
in the life of Joseph. Now our last study we looked
at verses 38 to 46 of Genesis chapter 41. And we saw very clearly that
the purpose of God was fulfilled in exalting Joseph as ruler over
all of Egypt. And Pharaoh made sure that all
the Egyptians knew that Joseph had been raised to this position. He was now prime minister, prime
minister over all of Egypt. And we saw in our texts that
he went through Egypt twice. And he went about quickly to
accomplish the work that he was set to do, that was set before
him. And we know that he was faithful to fulfill that work.
He was faithful to fulfill that work. And beloved Joseph, as
a believer in the one true God, knew that it was God who had
promoted him to that position. And he took it very seriously.
He took it very seriously. And Joseph, we saw, is always,
throughout this study, we've seen him in various times as
a picture of Christ. And we saw that the exaltation
of Joseph typified the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
God-man, our sovereign Lord, and our all-sufficient Savior.
He's not sitting around doing nothing right now, beloved. He's
not. He's ruling and reigning on the
throne of power. I said to Vicki this morning,
with all the stuff going on in this world, Even in our country,
I said, isn't it nice to get up in the morning and know who's
in control? Not have to worry about all this stuff. Know who's
running things. It's incredible, isn't it? It
gives you peace. It really does. It gives you
peace amidst all the situations in this world, amidst the situations
in our lives, too. And that's why the scripture
says we have the peace that passes all understanding, because the world
can't understand that peace. They wonder why we're not freaking
out with them. But we're not, because we know who's in control,
and we have rest. Now we struggle with our flesh,
and we struggle in life, but what a rest we have. What a rest
we have. So our Savior, we know that he
rules and reigns over all things visible and invisible. And think
of how How overruling He is when the scripture says that not even
a sparrow, one of the little birds that we love to watch fly
in the air. I love sparrows, always have. And that not one
of those fall to the ground without Him knowing. That's how in control
our God is, beloved. That's how in control He is.
And so what a peace that'll give us. And our risen Savior, He's
the exalted God-man right now. He's seated at the right hand
of glory. on the sovereign throne of power, and he's working both
to do his will and to do his good pleasure, beloved. And he's
Lord over all, upholding all things by the word of his power.
By the word of his power. Sovereign control. He's working
things out for his eternal glory and for the eternal good of his
chosen people as well. And this is the only one to whom
God's born-again people bow to. Our heavenly Joseph. And that
name and message is God's heavenly Joseph. Christ is our heavenly
Joseph, beloved. He has everything we need. Everything
we need. We must come to the Lord Jesus
Christ if we are to receive the heavenly grain that God has for
his people. He stored it in one heavenly
granary. The Lord Jesus Christ. That's
where the bread of life is stored, only in Him. Only in Him, beloved. And it's for His chosen people.
And He makes us to what? Hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Well, He feeds us, doesn't He? He feeds us. He saves us, and
then He feeds us. And how do we grow? We grow in
grace and knowledge and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we're nourished by the gospel. We're encouraged by the gospel.
And we feast upon Christ and Christ alone through the preaching
of his word. And we bow down to God's heavenly
Joseph. We bow down to God's heavenly Joseph. And we know
that all spiritual blessings are in him. They're all in him. There's only one storehouse for
God, one storehouse for God, and that's Christ and Christ
alone. And it is he who we love and worship and adore. Now let's
read, with that in mind, let's read verses 46 to 55 in Genesis
chapter 41. We're going to leave verses 56
and 57 for our next lesson because they tie right in with our next
lesson. And Joseph was 30 years old when
he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out
from the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land
of And in the seven plenteous years the earth bought forth
by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food
of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt and laid
up the food in the cities. The food of the field which was
round about every city laid he up in the same. And Joseph gathered
corn as the sand of the sea. You can't number the sands of
the sea. So there's a great number of corn here. Very much until
he left numbering for it was without number. They got to a
point where they had so much corn they couldn't even number
it. How much corn they had. And Joseph were born, and unto
Joseph were born two sons before the years of the famine came,
which Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah, the priest of On
bare unto him. And Joseph called the name of
the firstborn Manasseh, for God said he hath made me to forget
all my toil in all my father's house. And the name of the second
called Ephraim, for God hath caused me to be fruitful in the
land of my affliction. In the seven years of Plinius
that was upon the land of Egypt were ended, And the seven years
of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said. And the dearth
was in all lands. The famine was in all lands. But in all the land of Egypt,
there was bread. There was bread. When all the
land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread.
And Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, go unto Joseph, what
he saith to you. Let's look at verses 47 to 49
first. And it said, in the seven plenteous
years the earth bought forth by handfuls. And he gathered
up all the food of the seven years which were in the land
of Egypt and laid it up. Laid up the food in the cities,
the food of the field, which was round about every city. laid
up in the same. And Joseph gathered corn as the
sand of the sea, very much until he left numbering, for it was
without number." Now we see there in the first seven years of Joseph's
God-ordained reign as Prime Minister, and never forget, it's all this
is happening according to the will of God, according to his
divine purpose. In the first seven years of his
God-ordained reign as Prime Minister, we see clearly from our text
that our Sovereign Lord made sure that the first part of Pharaoh's
dream came to pass. Just like Joseph had said it
would. Seven years of plenty. Seven
years of abundance. The workers worked the ground,
plowing it. They planted the seeds of their
grain. They watered it and took care of their fields, but we
know who gave the increase, don't we? We know who gave the increase. It's God. We plant flowers and
gardens for food and we water them and take care of them, but
we know who gives the increase, don't we? Isn't it marvelous
when we see the flowers bloom or when we see the food come
up in plenty? beans covered in, or bean plants
covered in beans, tomatoes with beautiful ripe tomatoes. It's
incredible. All that increase, beloved, comes
from the Lord. All of that. All of that. And He is the only one who can
give the increase. Paul brought this truth forth in the case
of salvation. If you would, turn to 1 Corinthians
3. Paul brought this case the same picture forth in the case
of salvation. The preacher preaches the gospel.
It's like sowing seed. Just sowing seed. The preacher
preaches the gospel. Another preacher may come by
and he preaches the same gospel. It's like putting water on those
seeds. Right? But it's God who must
give the increase. We're just mouthpieces, we preachers.
But we preach the same gospel. With different personalities.
Because that's who we are. We preach what we know. But it's
the same message. The same message. And it's God
who gives the increase. Every gospel preacher will tell
you. It's God who does it all. Salvation is of the Lord. Look
at this in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 5-7. Who then is Paul? And who
is Apollos? And the reason, we know the reason
he's saying this, he's splitting the two of them up, is because
there's been people who've been vaulting preachers up. In the
first chapter, they lift one preacher over another. Say, well
I'm of Apollos, and I'm of Paul, and I'm of this, and I'm of that.
And then they had the audacity to even lower Christ down to
the same level as those sent men. He's nowhere near us. He's God. He's God incarnate
in the flesh. He's over all. He rules and reigns.
So he's writing this again in 1 Corinthians. Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos? But ministers
by whom he believed. They faithfully preach the gospel.
And that's what God's preachers do. Faithfully preach the gospel.
Even as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted Apollos'
water. See that? He sowed the seed. Paul comes along preaching the
same message. There's some water on it. It's incredible, beloved. But God gave the increase. There's a key part of that whole
verse right there. That's the key of that whole section. So
then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth,
but God that giveth the increase. Again, all the glory goes to
the Lord. So the only reason there was
such plenty then in the land of Egypt was because God made
it so. He gave the increase, just as
Joseph said it would be. See, his will will come to pass.
What he decrees will come to pass, beloved. And think of that
in light of our salvation. It'll just make you... It was
part of his plan and purpose to save us, beloved. To pluck
us like brands out of the fire. My, out of our generation. out of our generation. Peter
says we're a chosen generation. It's absolutely incredible. So
go back to Genesis there and we see then that during the first
seven years, there was an abundance of crops, an abundance of crops. And again, we know this was all
by God's sovereign hand because only he can give the increase.
And again, this had come to pass exactly as Joseph had told Pharaoh
it would. Exactly as Joseph had told Pharaoh.
Now again, there's an abundance of grain under Joseph's supervision,
and he made sure that his servants laid up a fifth part of the crops,
putting them in storage in every city. He had storage houses in
every city. And remember a few weeks back,
I mentioned that the cost of this grain would be extremely
cheap for Pharaoh, because there's plenty. So for him to purchase
it wouldn't cost him near what it would if it was in a year
of shortage. So he's buying this, because
Joseph's using Pharaoh's money. And he's purchasing all this
grain. He's purchasing all this grain. And there was such an
abundance, our text says that those who kept the records, look
at verse 49, there was such an abundance that those who kept
the records left numbering it because it was without number.
Look at that. And Joseph gathered corn as the
sand of the sea very much until he left numbering for it was
without number. So much corn. So much. And now think of God's blessing
to his people. The scripture says that God's
elect are a number that no man can number. A number that no
man can number. A vast number. And can we count
the blessings from the Lord that we've received? No. We can't even come close. We
look back and we see, we usually see the blessings after the situation. Brother John and I were talking
last night, and he brought up a wonderful point that the Lord
brings affliction in our lives. And at the time, it doesn't feel
good. But when we look back, we realize it was good for us.
It was good for us. So a blessing is not just something
where we go, oh, that's a great blessing. A trial can even be
a blessing, because it draws us closer to the Lord. Closer
to the Lord. So, how many blessings do we
have? They're countless. You know,
even that food that we get on our table every day, and the
cup of coffee you get, think of that cup of coffee. Some farmer
in another country's growing that coffee. He picks it, they do whatever
they have to do with it. They send it over to this country. It's all processed, Whatever
they need to do to it is done. It's shipped to the stores and
you go to the store and you either buy the beans or the grains,
don't you? And then you put that in your coffee maker and you
just have a wonderful cup of coffee. That's a blessing from
the Lord, beloved. Every day. Every day, the food
on your table. Every day. It's incredible. It's absolutely incredible. Our
Lord takes good care of us, doesn't he? And everybody else gets the
residual effects, beloved. You ever think of that? Everyone
else in the world just gets the residual effects. God does all
this for his elect, for his people. All the medications that are
ever made, Brother Donny Bell bought that out. All the medications
that are ever made are for God's people. And everyone else just
gets the residual effects. That's incredible. That's absolutely
incredible. That's how sovereign our God
is. He's in full control, full control. So we can't even count
the blessings we receive in the Lord. Look at verses 50 to 52
now. And Joseph, and unto Joseph were
born two sons before the years of the famine came, which Asenath,
the daughter of Potipharah, priest of On, bear unto him. And Joseph
called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for God said he hath
made me forget all my toil and all my father's house. in the
name of the second called Hiephraim, for God hath caused me to be
fruitful in the land of my affliction. So we see during the seven years
of plenty that Joseph had two sons, and it's the name of the sons
that I'd like to look at in these three verses. The first son is
named Manasseh, Manasseh, which means causing to forget in Hebrew.
Causing to forget. It signifies forgetfulness. Forgetfulness. I mentioned down at 13th Street
when I was down there, that in every situation, beloved,
we can either get better or bitter. And the way we get better is
just to forget. Just to let it go. And it's not hard for us
to forget and forgive with people when we consider how much we've
been forgiven by our great God. And He doesn't forgive like we
do. Because sometimes we say, well, I forgive you, but I'm
not going to forget that. He doesn't do that. Our God doesn't
do that, because we sinned against Him, didn't we? And He says,
as far as the East is from your West, He's removed our transgressions
from us. They're gone. They're gone. So Joseph is not harboring bitterness
towards what his brothers did. He's letting it go. And what's
helped him is the work that's at hand. He's got to focus on
the work before him. And focus on that. And the rich blessings our Lord
had poured out on Joseph has caused him to forget the toil
and souls of the first 13 years in Egypt. And he knows, as a believer,
in the one true God, he knows that all this happened according
to God's sovereign plan. He knows that, and his purpose.
And he knows, and we're gonna find that out later on in our
study, he knows that what his brothers meant for evil, God
used for good. That's an incredible portion
of scripture when he says that to his brothers. Just absolutely
incredible. So think of the pain and the
suffering that he'd experienced. Brother Jim, you and I were talking
about what it'd be like to be just cast away like that and
sold to them slavers. Last week we were talking about
that and how he's just a piece of merchandise, you were saying. And that's what he was. just
a piece of merchandise to those slavers. They didn't care about
them. And even Potiphar, he purchased them. And then Brother Jim was
mentioning about when Potiphar gave all the power to Joseph, and even when Pharaoh
gave all the power to Joseph, it'd be like the president giving
all the power to the vice president, saying, I'm just gonna sit back
and let you run things. It's similar to that. And think of the uproar that
would have been caused within the Egyptian royalty. But Pharaoh
silenced all that, didn't he? All because of the will and sovereign
decree of our great God. So Joseph knows all these things
that have occurred. have occurred according to God's
sovereign plan. The pain, the suffering that
he experienced, being cast into a pit by his wicked brethren,
being sold into slavery by the slavers, purchased by Potiphar,
again who put him into a high position, and then he was falsely
accused by Potiphar's wife and cast into prison. And he's forgotten for a full
year. Butler just forgot about him. And now he's being exalted
to a high position. A high position. Over all the
land of Egypt, second in command, only answerable to Pharaoh. And
he has seen the mighty power of God, the mighty hand of God
at work in his life. And he has by God's grace, now
remember this, he has by God's grace forgotten all the ill. that those who did against him.
He's let it go. He's let it go. He just let it
go. All the injuries that his brothers
had done to him, Potiphar's wife falsely accused him, Potiphar
cast him into prison. He had much work on his hands,
beloved, and very little time to think of his father and his
family. Now his second son was named Ephraim. Ephraim. Which means in the Hebrew, doubly
fruitful. Doubly fruitful. It signifies
an abundance. Doubly fruitful. And our dear
brother Joseph knew that it was the Lord Jesus Christ who had
caused him to be fruitful in the land of his affliction. Again, afflictive seasons are
often the most fruitful ones in a believer's life. No one
likes to go through them. They're hard, but they're often
fruitful for us, because it's at those times that we draw closer
to our heavenly Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Joseph attributed all
that he had, the position, everything that he went through, that God
had got him through that. And God had exalted him to this
position. All the skill that he had in
interpreting the dreams, his wisdom in political affairs,
the abundance of wealth and riches, which now he would have. Think
of that too. Now he'd be a wealthy man. The wealth and the riches and
the glory and the honor that he now has. He could trace it all back to
God, and he would be quick to give him the glory. He'd be quick
to give him the glory. Now, something to remember, too,
Vicki and I were talking about this this week, and we'll bring
it up later on when the brethren come before Joseph. His appearance would change. That's why his brothers didn't
recognize him, because the Egyptians put all kinds of stuff on themselves.
So when they came before him, they didn't even know who he
was. We'll look at that later on. Now, he's went from slavers,
being on the slave block, to being in Potiphar's house, to
being in prison, and probably just rags in prison, and now
he's clothed in royal garments. Oh my, oh my. And it's all by
God's hand. It's all by God's hand. And hence
the definitions and how they give glory to God, of the names
of his sons. Now every believer, think of
this too, every believer serves the same wonderful, merciful
God. The same wonderful, merciful God as Joseph served. Every single
one of us as believers serve the same wonderful God. The same
merciful God. He doesn't change, does he? He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's the same God. So we can pillow our head at
night, and we can wake up in the morning, no matter what's
going on in this world, and no matter what's going on, and
we can say our great God is in full control. Hallelujah. And it's only by God's grace
we can say that, eh? It's only by God's grace that
we can say that. Everything that we see visible and invisible
is under the sovereign control of our great God, our great Savior. Everything's being placed in
His hands, beloved. And may God give us grace to
trust Him each day. Now let's look at verses 53 and
54. And the seven years of plenty
that was in the land of Egypt were ended, and the seven years
of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said. And the dearth
was in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was
bread. And we see here in these two verses, seven years of plenty
have passed, and now we are brought to the seven years of dearth,
famine, a shortage of food in all the lands around Egypt. Now
during this time, It should have been obvious to the Egyptians
that the Spirit of God was in Joseph, not only in the interpretation
of Pharaoh's dreams, but also the wisdom which the Spirit of
God had given him to make preparations for their survival during the
time of famine. Because if this hadn't been done,
they'd have perished. But see, God had decreed that
his people would go down to Egypt. You see? And it must happen.
In our next study, we're gonna see the start of that is the
brethren have to go down and get corn. Oh my. And look at verse 54 again. In
the seven years of dearth, famine began to come, according as Joseph
had said, and the dearth was in all lands, but in the land
of Egypt, there was bread. All around them was a famine.
All around them. Famine in the land. All around
them. But in the land of Egypt, there
was plenty. There was plenty. And again,
all this is coming to pass, all this is being ordained and executed
by our sovereign God to fulfill what he had revealed to Abraham. Over in Genesis chapter 15, if
you want to turn there, you can. I'm just going to read it. He
had said to Abraham, and he said, in verses 13 and 14, and he said
unto Abraham, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger
in the land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they
shall afflict them 400 years. And also the nation whom they
serve will I judge. And afterward shall they come
out with great substance. So here we see God has taken
Joseph down there And now he's raised to power. And it'll be
amazing as we see in the life of Joseph, the continuous hand
of God just at work, like it is in all the world. His hands,
he's at work all the time, beloved. He does not rest. He doesn't
slumber or sleep like we do. We work a certain amount, we
get tired, we lay down. He never stops. And he's in full
control. He's in full control. Isaiah
says this, remember the former thing is of old, for I am God.
And there is none else. I am God, and there is none like
me. Declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, which
he did there in Genesis 15. It hadn't come to pass yet. He says this is what's going
to happen. And from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure. He does whatever he pleases.
He does whatever he pleases. Let's read verse 54 again. And
we'll see that there's no corn, but in Egypt in the seven years
of dearth began to come. And according as Joseph has said,
and the dearth was in all the lands, but in all the land of
Egypt, there was bread. There was bread. So this famine
was not just, just in the land of Egypt, but they had bread
because they had there. They had, they had food because
they had prepared, but this famine was in all the countries around
them too. Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Palestine,
Canaan, where Syria would be now, Iraq, all those areas, famine,
severe famine. But we see in the land of Egypt
that there was bread. There was bread. Joseph in the
seven years of plenty had been storing grain all because God
had given Joseph the wisdom and the authority to make sure that
there would be plenty of grain. He gave the increase in the crops,
too, so that it would come to pass, just as he said. Think of this, too, not only
for the needs of the Egyptians, but for the needs of all the
surrounding nations as well. See, we often don't think of
that. It's not just for the Egyptians, because there's corn without
number. There's corn without number. It's for all the nations
around them, too. Now as we go through this study,
we'll see that it was a need of bread that God used to get
his chosen people down into Egypt. A need, they had a need. Oh,
they had a need, didn't they? We had a need too at one time,
didn't we? We still have a need, even as believers, every single
day. Let's read verse 55, and when
all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for
bread, and Pharaoh said unto the Egyptians, go unto Joseph,
what he sayeth to you, do. Oh, in verse 55, the Egyptians,
after they had exhausted their own personal food supplies, now
they come to Pharaoh and cry to Pharaoh for bread, to their
king. And the Egyptians knew that Pharaoh
had grain because Joseph had been purchasing it for him. Storing
it up during the seven years of plenty. So there was plenty of grain
in Pharaoh's storehouses. Plenty of grain in the storehouses.
And we see that they are now willing to buy back what they
have sold. Even though they knew that they'd have to pay more
for it. They didn't care. They wanted food. They wanted
food. So they cried out to Pharaoh,
who was the ruler. And they cried out to him for
bread. And note Pharaoh's response to their cry. Go unto Joseph.
When he say it to you, do. He's put everything in Pharaoh's
hands. Or everything in Joseph's hands.
Whatever Joseph says, he's in charge. Whatever he says, do. So the Egyptians only had one
place to go to for food. One place. To satisfy their hunger,
to satisfy their need, they had only one place to go to. Because the dirt, the famine
was in all the lands around them. In their land and all the lands
around them. And there was only bread in Egypt,
beloved. And Joseph was the only person
who had the authority to distribute that bread. What a pitcher. What a pitcher, beloved. And he could give the bread to
whomever he pleased, couldn't he? He could say, no, you're
not getting any, and you're getting some, if he wanted to. He had
the power to do that. He had full power. And they would
have to come, and they would have to pay what Joseph The price
that Joseph demanded. Well, we don't have to pay anything,
beloved, for the heavenly bread which we received. But God did
demand a payment for it. And Christ paid it with his precious
blood. He paid that what God demanded
for us. And we only come to the heavenly Joseph, don't we? There's
only one way to heaven. There's only one way to glory,
and that's in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Only one way.
He's God's heavenly Joseph, beloved. And Pharaoh again says, go unto
Joseph, and what he sayeth to you, do. So what a picture we
have before us of the Lord Jesus Christ in Joseph. Joseph is exalted by God to this
position, or the man Jesus Christ. The God-man is exalted to a high
position, a name above all names, beloved. And it's our Heavenly
Father who's put him there. It's Him who's put him there.
All things are in the hands of the glorified God-man, right?
We know that. He rules and reigns. All things
are subject to Him. All things are under His feet. And remember the words of our
great God, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.
He's only pleased in Him. So we must come to the heavenly
Joseph to be saved. We must come to the heavenly
Joseph to be saved. As the man Christ Jesus is the
only one true mediator between God and man. The only one. And Christ is not a way to God,
He's the only way to God. And Christ is not just a truth,
He is the truth full of grace and mercy. And He's not just
a life, no, He is life, eternal life, the giver of eternal life. And may God, by His sovereign
power, grant us faith and grace to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee again for Your goodness,
Your mercy, and Your grace. Oh, what a blessing we have.
And Lord Jesus, we who are Your people, You've shown us our need.
We've come to Thee, our Heavenly Joseph, our Heavenly Joseph. We pray, Lord, that You'd make
Your lost sheep hungry. Oh, that they would hunger and
thirst for Thee, O Lord, that You'd show them their desperate
need for You, and that by Thy Holy Spirit they would be born
again and granted faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Glory
to Your name, in Jesus' name, amen.